While privately-held EMI Group announced plans yesterday to cut around 2,000 jobs worldwide, the company also announced intentions to allow corporate sponsors to brand artists. According to British music journal NME, the plan will encompass connections to new releases from such large name acts as Coldplay, Kylie Minogue, and Babyshambles. This announcement coincides with several comments from EMI acts that they intend to withhold pending releases from the company until assurances can be made about marketing and digital promotion. Radiohead reportedly left EMI after assurances in those areas were not made by the record label, and when the company balked at giving the band rights to its back catalog.

A move like this should not be surprising, especially considering that other media and entertainment outlets have long used promotions of this sort to sell new products and releases. Most prominently are the deals film studios make for product placement and tie-ins with new films. Last year's Transformers comes to mind more than any other recent film in that regard. But where it is easy to insert a car for product promotion into a scene, the same cannot be said about music. Although it is unlikely Coldplay will start to sing about some new model car about to be revealed, the amount of control that artists may lose is daunting. The basic amount of attachment artists have toward albums seems to make this kind of deal unmanageable. If it is Britney Spears though, who would want to attach their brand to her at this point?

Unless the promotion is for some brand of musical device or instrument, this arrangement just seems hard to manage and especially hard to sell to artists that are very willing to withhold albums in light of issues already out of their control.

For a sport that just a few years ago was the darling of the blue-chippers, NASCAR has suddenly found love as hard to come by as a meth-addled octogenarian. After Anheuser-Busch (NYSE: BUD) dropped its 25-year long title sponsorship of the race promoter's second-tier series, Subway seemed a lock to take it on.

Now comes news that the restaurant's ardor for the series has cooled, and NASCAR has been forced to revisit formerly spurned suitors such as KFC (NYSE: YUM), Allstate (NYSE: ALL) and Dunkin' Donuts (D'OH!).

Along with the decline in interest has come a drop in price. The value of the sponsorship, once thought to run $30 million a year, has been halved. NASCAR is not the only loser in that drop; the original price included a mandatory ESPN ad buy of around $10 million, a requirement that has been relaxed.

According to Michael Smith in the Sporting News, Subway balked at the lack of exclusivity, a constant source of tension in the race industry where teams, tracks, OEMs and suppliers are also hustling sponsorships for every nut, bolt and beer cozy in the paddock.

NASCAR fans skew 60-40% male, slightly above the U.S. average in the 35-44 year of age category. They are overrepresented in the lower income categories, which would dampen the interest of luxury product companies. One interesting statistic is its popularity among America's fastest growing minority -- Hispanic fans have grown from 3.6% to 8.6% in only a few years. So how about the Taco Bell series? Or The Chipotle (NYSE: CMG) 500?

From a new racing team to a shiny new car, Dale Earnhardt Jr. appears to be starting fresh. The NASCAR favorite is leaving Dale Earnhardt Inc. (the racing company founded by his late father) and signing up with Hendrick Motorsports, which also employs household racing name Jeff Gordon.

To coincide with this change in lifestyle, Earnhardt has announced a new partnership with Sony Corporation (NYSE: SNE), whose logo will now adorn the hood of his new vehicle. Sports Illustrated reported earlier today that he told reporters: "I'm a big electronics fan. I'm a big computer guy. It's [sic] products I can dig." He also noted that he was given a digital camera as part of the endorsement package (he can't afford one on his own?).

What Earnhardt - dressed in Puma tennis shoes while mentioning hopes of a future additional alliance with Adidas - failed to mention is what this new deal means for the future of his relationship with Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. (NYSE: BUD). Budweiser has sponsored Earnhardt since 1999, complete with a hood decoration, and this contract is still valid. Forbes indicates that BUD will continue its personal-services contract arrangement with Earnhardt, which gives the beer giant the right to his likeness, name, and voice for its promotions.

The news hasn't benefited either of the stocks today - both SNE and BUD are showing modest losses in late-afternoon action.

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

The Busch series, the minor-league version of NASCAR's Nextel Cup circuit that usually runs on the same track the day before the NASCAR races, has been titled by Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc. (NYSE:BUD) for the past 26 years. In a surprising turn, given the popularity of the sport, the brewer has decided to drop its sponsorship of the series.

The reasons seem to be twofold. First, the series is struggling for participation. Designed as a venue to showcase up-and-coming drivers, the series has been taken over by teams' A-list of Nextel Cup series regulars. In 2006, all but two of the races were won by big-name drivers. Since these teams already gain a great deal of exposure through their Sunday race participation, some sponsors may question whether racing a second day gains them much additional bang for their buck.

The other factor is an abrupt increase in the sponsorship fees demanded by NASCAR. After signing an eight-year deal with ESPN to televise the series, NASCAR has apparently raised the title sponsorship price from $10 million to $40 million.

Among those corporations rumored to be interested in replacing Anheuser-Busch are Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT), Subway, and Samsung.